College Majors With Highest (and Lowest) Unemployment

People who have graduated from college are historically more likely to be employed than those who have not. The unemployment rate for those with a four-year bachelor’s degree is 2.7% – lower than the national unemployment rate of 4.9% for all workers. In comparison, the rate for those with a regular high school diploma is 5.2%.

Even among college graduates, however, the unemployment rate varies greatly depending on major. While the unemployment rate for those who majored in certain subjects such as public policy and social psychology is higher than the national jobless rate, it is less than 0.1% for others such as nuclear technology and actuarial science.

24/7 Wall St. has determined the college majors that currently have the highest and lowest rates of unemployment using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey.